Hello-
I am my team's Swimming Chair (we have water polo and tri too). My team has a lot of new people (and some stubborn people) who don't seem to want to follow our coached workouts. They just want to do their own thing or do the workout at their own pace regardless of the rest of the lane.
So far, I have kept pretty quiet on this issue.
- We have some coaches that are more strict than others.
- I don't want to have to create a strict "age group" atmosphere.
- We sometimes have a compressed number of lanes at our facility, where different levels may get squeezed together in one lane. We are a larger team.
However, I'm a slower-medium swimmer, and I have left some practices because they have turned into such "**** shows" with people doing their own workouts. (Yes, I could say something to my lane mates or coaches, but I would be so bitchy in the moment).
After returning form our end-of-summer break, I'd like to kindly explain the logic of why we order lanes from fast to slow, why it is important to follow the workouts as written by the coaches and that there is no shame in moving up or down a lane depending on speed. Does anyone have any guidelines on "practice etiquette"? In my position I could just be blunt, but I'm looking for a kinder approach, especially for people who may not have swam age group and may just not "get it" Thanks!
Our previous coach was pretty intense and demanded close adherence to the posted workout and would get personally offended if someone wanted to "do their own thing". That led to some occasional ugly, uncomfortable confrontations, with both the coach and swimmers walking out on occasion.
Our new coach has a more laid-back approach.
We have four broad unofficial categories: fitness swimmers, triathletes, developmental swimmers, and the elites.
The fitness swimmers normally use the first two lanes and either loosely follow the coach's workout or do their own thing (some are rank beginners, just learning to swim).
The "developmental" swimmers use the center lanes and try to follow the workout, but may adjust their send off times and rest periods to fit their individual skill level and/or condition. If you watch them from the deck, they may appear to be out of sync with each other relative to the posted workout.
The "elites" generally hammer out the workout exactly as written on some pretty tight send-offs.
Our coach normally makes out a separate distance-oriented workout for the triathletes and they usually will cluster together in one or two adjacent lanes and do their workout.
Most of the regulars gravitate to lanes where they know they'll fit in. Occasionally new folks will cause some disruption, but most often someone will politely suggest that they may fit in better in another lane. Ironically, it's usually the slower swimmers suggesting that a newbie move to a faster lane rather than the other way around.
It all seems to work relatively well for our mix of swimmers.
Our previous coach was pretty intense and demanded close adherence to the posted workout and would get personally offended if someone wanted to "do their own thing". That led to some occasional ugly, uncomfortable confrontations, with both the coach and swimmers walking out on occasion.
Our new coach has a more laid-back approach.
We have four broad unofficial categories: fitness swimmers, triathletes, developmental swimmers, and the elites.
The fitness swimmers normally use the first two lanes and either loosely follow the coach's workout or do their own thing (some are rank beginners, just learning to swim).
The "developmental" swimmers use the center lanes and try to follow the workout, but may adjust their send off times and rest periods to fit their individual skill level and/or condition. If you watch them from the deck, they may appear to be out of sync with each other relative to the posted workout.
The "elites" generally hammer out the workout exactly as written on some pretty tight send-offs.
Our coach normally makes out a separate distance-oriented workout for the triathletes and they usually will cluster together in one or two adjacent lanes and do their workout.
Most of the regulars gravitate to lanes where they know they'll fit in. Occasionally new folks will cause some disruption, but most often someone will politely suggest that they may fit in better in another lane. Ironically, it's usually the slower swimmers suggesting that a newbie move to a faster lane rather than the other way around.
It all seems to work relatively well for our mix of swimmers.
